Ksw299

I have emailed the hotel - I know there was a post above abt the reply back from the hotel but still thought I would give it a shot.

worldtraveler3

Let us know how that goes!

ahbitheman

I was wondering if they'd close this 80K/night for OWV at the W maldives too. I wanted to allow time to accumlate the 340K but didn't think it would last so ended up buying points to top up. Wish I bought via SPGs 30% promo before they went away but still worth it given the rates.

h8stn4d

This looks to be the case, judging from the hotel website. There is no longer a separate category for lagoon vs ocean.

bgriff

That does seem to be what happened although it's not totally obvious to me why. I guess there aren't many (maybe aren't any?) data points on what an OWV points booking would have cost in the old SPG program but I assume it was more than a 6.667K Starpoints buy-up, if it was available at all. So it's not like the existence of the 80K rate was some sort of holdover from old SPG.

It's also possible that the 80K was effectively just an error rate, especially since the St. Regis Maldives had a similar one that got squashed quickly, though if that's the case it's surprising that it remained bookable for so long. I guess good things don't last forever though.

Or, maybe it will come back at some point; I haven't yet come across any SPG hotels that offer ugpraded room categories for booking with points online yet, even at hotels that used to be good about offering upgraded room points bookings if you called (like the Great Northern in London for example, though I haven't had reason to call and see if upgraded rooms on points are still available by phone at that property). Many Marriott properties offer some upgraded room options on points as well, so perhaps Marriott has just disabled those for some time while getting systems issues sorted out, and hopefully they'll come back at some point in the future. Though who knows if that will be before December 31 or not.

ahbitheman

Direct E-mail quote from hotel to help those staying. Confirms breakfast is free for two as a welcome gift in the Kitchen Restaurant, the room change is a glitch which can be fixed via call or e-mail, and the destination amenity is the plane.

"As a Platinum member, you will have the option to choose daily Breakfast upon arrival as a Welcome Gift for 02 persons (Member +1) in Kitchen restaurant as one of your membership benefits.

We have well noted and confirmed to provide Spectacular Lagoon Oasis for your stay as initially booked due to system changes after migration from Starwood to Marriott.

Please note that the Destination Amenity Fee is the seaplane transfer charges of USD 475 including taxes per person round trip which will be paid upon arrival to our resort."

Hope this helps!

pnoeric

Very helpful, thank you.

I emailed the hotel to fix my points res turning into a paid res and they immediately replied and said it's all fixed. And indeed, on Marriott.com, it's back to points.

All good here!

bgriff

I emailed the hotel to request some additional menus and I'll post them when I get the chance -- Kitchen menu was the same as I had previously posted, and they included in-room dining, Fire, and Fish menus as well.

But interesting one was the attached flyer for a drink package. It's labeled as 2018 so will probably be even more expensive by the time of my stay in early 2019. The terms of the offer aren't totally clear to me from the flyer, but seems like it could be a good deal for someone who was going to drink anyway, given what I've heard about drink prices in the Maldives. Can anyone who's been to the W comment?

Gunner14

Perfect - good to know about the Spectacular Lagoon Oasis that it will be honored.

h8stn4d

This is a far cry from honoring what the website said about breakfast before it was changed. What's the deal for those who are not Platinum but who made reservations when the website said breakfast was included for everyone?

ahbitheman

SOL? I'm sure if you complain while there you'll get it comped anyway though

DonnyJohn

bgriff, thanks for posting. Any chance you could post the in-room dining menu?

Ksw299

After a couple of back and forths about asking Marriott Reservations I finally got this reply from them:

" Thank you for your email,

The inventory for points booking is not managed by property directly, hence incase the room is not available under the points than the same has been closed for the points booking and the room category is unavailble to book.

We are pleased to offer upgrade for the full stay with the upgrade supliment provided below in our earlier email.



Should you require anything else please do not hesitate to contact us.

"
Both marriott and the property seems to be passing the blame to each other. I thought the property decided which rooms would be available on points.

I was quoted $400++ per night now as I have an earlier email by them which quotes $250++. The only reason I was leaning towards the W is the private dinner in their private island Gaathafushi. @Starwood Lurker IV - can you please investigate if W Maldives is no longer offering points upgrades to Overwater villas?

pnoeric

Hmm! That drink package may well be worth the price... especially considering the water is US$12-15 depending on the W Maldives restaurant (according to the menus they sent me) and wine is approx $15/glass. Suddenly $70 pp for the DAY is a decent offer.

bgriff

Here are the menus I was sent. None of them included any drink prices so would appreciate if anyone else who may have received drink menus would share!

Overall it appears that price ranges are very similar across all the restaurants, and it's not clear from the menus what the portion sizes are, but they again sound fairly similar. So

First, in-room dining menu (which appears "reasonable" compared to elsewhere in the resort in certain categories, but then very unreasonable in other categories, like the ice cream tubs):